Weekly Geek Outs - 08/19/16

Greetings!

Here's what is going on in my world this week:

• Batman V Superman: Dawn of Justice - Ultimate Edition

Long story short, they got me. I bought this extended cut of the movie on Blu-Ray. Not worth it, does not make this complicated movie any better (see my review for more detailed thoughts). This movie is overstuffed as it is, and the scenes cut help weave some minor plot points together better, but the movie is still not great. Wonder Woman is still awesome though and should have been in the movie more.

• Capital Area Food Bank

I'm going to volunteer here with my partner with the great Day of Service Paid Time Off benefit I have with my job. They recently implemented this initiative and I'm excited to take advantage of it. I have more days to use and I look forward to building a relationship with this great community organization.

• Thought

I've said this a few times in conversation recently, and thought I'd share it with you: I didn't even know my job and the company I work for now existed when I started job searching last year. Now that I'm here, I couldn't be more grateful I stumbled upon this company and this job. My thought and advice for those worried about figuring out what is next for them or what to do with their lives; it may just be out there waiting for you to discover it. Or it may not even exist yet, either way, you just need to be patient, do good work, and put yourself out there. Luck happens more often to those that are prepared for it.

Thanks for stopping by!

Movie Review Monday: Batman v Superman - Dawn of Justice

Welcome to another edition of Movie Review Monday!

This week's film is the recently released Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, starring Henry Cavill, Ben Affleck, Jesse Eisenburg, Gal Gadot, and strong (and large) supporting cast.

I talked about some of my initial impressions of this movie in my geek out last week, and I just wanted to go a bit more in depth with my thoughts here with this highly contentious movie. The critics have not been kind to this one, and many comic book purists are having issue with it as well. I will say that I think it is not as bad as some people are making it out to be, but it is not a great movie by any means. It is confusing, unfocused, and needlessly boring for the subject matter. While I don't need a MCU clone, I would have hoped for a more fun movie.

To balance things out, there were some things I enjoyed about the movie, and it seems are pretty universally appreciated. Ben Affleck did well as both Bruce Wayne and Batman where other actors seemed to do well as one or the other. He portrayal was his own and he succeeded where many thought he would fail. Gal Gadot makes the most of her (very) limited screen time as Wonder Woman, especially in the final fight sequence. I will admit to getting chills when she hit the screen and her music kicked in. It was really well done and I look forward to what is to come in her solo movie next year. Jesse Eisenburg did pretty well as the manic, eccentric, egotistical manipulative, genius Lex Luthor. While some of the confusion comes from his character's motivations, some of the plot holes could just be explained away by his paranoia and/or hubris.

While I appreciate the attempts of this movie to play catch up to the MCU, I felt like the nods to other Justice League members to be underwhelming and sort of forced. It leaves me wondering how it will all work in a bit of a bad way, but we are getting Justice League, Part 1 next year so maybe it will all be a bit of rush job. Looking back it was nice to have a movie to get to know each of the members of the Avengers before bringing them together. Part of what holds Dawn of Justice back is that we don't get to know Wonder Woman or Batman as well as we could have to have their big team-up really resonate. Wonder Woman will at least get her own movie before Justice League, but other than Superman with Man of Steel, she is the only one.

Dawn of Justice is a movie that has a lot riding on it. I would liken it to Amazing Spider-Man 2 in how it must have been viewed by the production people. They both wanted so bad to set up their own movie universes, that, especially with Spider-Man, they suffer under their own weight. We can see where Dawn of Justice falters with that weight at times, but it holds steady, despite many issues (like the ending, was not a fan! And all the dream sequences?!).

I am very curious to hear other people's thoughts, so leave them in the comments below.

You can check out Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice at a theater near you!

Thanks for stopping by!

What I'm Geeking Out About This Week - 01/22/16

Greetings!

Here's what is going on in my world this week:

• Agent Carter

Some of my favorite shows are coming back this week, which makes me very happy. One of them is the limited series Agent Carter, which like last year, is covering the mid-season break of Agents of SHIELD. Season 2 premiered with a two-hour event on Tuesday, and I'm excited to continue to explore the story of Peggy Carter. These first two episodes (out of a total of 10 this season) were great and I'm looking forward to where the rest of the season goes. They have done her very well in the past, and she is a hallmark character of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, so I'm optimistic that they'll continue this trend. There is so much of her story to tell too, since we know she has a big role to play the in the creation of SHIELD, and based on the beginning of Ant-Man, is still influential up until at least the late 1980s. So that means we still have over 40 years of story to cover for Peggy, and I hope we at least get to glance at some of that at some point in some form or another. I'd be totally down for some deep, Cold War Agent Carter action!

• The Dark Knight Returns

I checked out this two part animated movie on HBO Now the other day in anticipation of Batman V Superman: Dawn of Justice, which takes some inspiration from this story. I had some cursory understanding of what this pivotal comic book was about, but I never read it so I was really excited to delve into the story deeper. The setting is a dystopic 1980s America, where a older, grizzled Batman comes out of hiding to free Gotham from the grips of a new wave of criminals. There are a bunch of nods to the rest of the DC Universe's fate in this timeline, which is cool, and I overall enjoyed everything about this. The action is good, the animation is solid, and the performances are good too. It's a unique interpretation of classic characters and settings, but I liked it's take on everything. These alternate universe stories always intrigue me since they allow for very fresh interpretations of well known tropes, and at times have no responsibility to be accountable to what came before or what comes after. Seeing this also has me even more excited for what Dawn of Justice will entail, and we're only like two months away now!

• Legends of Tomorrow

This brand new series just premiered last night and sets up a tantalizing premise of what boils down to Doctor Who with superheroes. The first episode has me excited for what is to come, and the time travel inherent to the show will allow for some cool DC Universe nods, like Jonah Hex. It will exist outside and alongside it's sibling shows of Arrow and Flash, since, again, with the time travel ability, the characters can come right back to where they left their timelines (a clever trick) which I'll be intrigued to see how that exactly works in practice versus in theory. For the next couple of months, we'll be spoiled with new weekly episodes of Flash, Arrow, and LoT, further bolstering their already robust shared DC TV Universe. As much as I enjoy Agent Carter and Agents of SHIELD, DC has them beat here.

Thanks for stopping by!

Batman and the Open Work Environment

When I was in college there was a blissful place in the library called the quiet area. I could go to this place and something magical would happen – no one would talk to me or around me. It was my own productivity cave. Then, I got to the real world and I was introduced to the open work environment – also know as a fashion show of headphones.

The open work environment – an airy creative space to give you room to think. To allow you to collaborate with your colleagues and to really get some “innovative” work done. But what if collaboration isn’t for every minute of every day? At first I thought, I was a broken millennial. I am terrible at ping-pong and other games that frequent the open work environment, and I prefer not to drink beer at work. For the record, I like my cave. I want to be alone.

Someone who prefers to work alone? An endangered species. But then it hit me – Batman (no he didn’t actually hit me, that would suck and I would probably be dead). Batman liked his space and he did a pretty good job juggling a double life as a super hero and millionaire. Not only that, but he knew when to work with a team and when he was the only man for the job.  If he ever did yoga, his balance would be a sight to behold.

Working styles differ and finding the best one for you is important.  Realizing the space and environment I thrive in boost my productivity and creativity. Some prefer the active and energizing open work space, other prefer a coffee shop buzz or working at midnight.  Whatever you prefer, finding the right fit will be a great improvement on your work life.

If anyone needs me, use the signal. I’ll be in my cave.

---

Bethany’s background includes working for startups, corporations, and ad agencies. Her area of expertise is digital communication and marketing strategy. She works as the Marketing Director for CordiaGrad and graduated from University of Kentucky (Go Cats!) with her B.B.A in Marketing.

Bethany has lived in 6 different states and enjoys taking spontaneous weekend trips to explore new cities. She is a Memphis native and volunteers with St. Jude Research Hospital.  She follows Kentucky Basketball when they are winning which, according to her, is always. Connect with her on Twitter to keep the conversation going.